Due to the increased time constraints of being a father, husband, and pursuing my company full-time, I am sad to announce that I’m going to be closing ELITETRACK in the coming days. The decision has been difficult and I’ve spent a long time coming to this point but I am sure that this is what I must do. Although site traffic has picked up substantially over the past year, I no longer have the time to manage the site, do upgrades to the software, blog, add articles, moderate the forum, etc. These tasks take up a considerable amount of time from my week and when put together with the fact that we aren’t generating much ad or affiliate revenue, keeping the site online no longer seems to be a viable option to me. Since I work for myself and am the sole breadwinner in my household, my primary responsibility is to grow my business so I can feed my family. Unfortunately, ELITETRACK seems to be taking away from this, as my time spent on the site could be spent earning much-needed money to support my family. I had debated just leaving the site up and letting members fend for themselves but I would still be eating the bill for hosting the site and if bedlam broke loose (as it sometimes does in un-moderated sites and forums) it would be my shoulders where the blame would ultimately land. The reality is that we’re in tough times both for track in general and the economy as a whole. Schools are dropping track programs because of the economy crunch. Track Shark, the biggest collegiate track and field site on the web, just shut down for 10 days after losing it’s funding (only to be brought back in limited capacity). I’m sure other sites are also soon to fall as people who made and created sites just for the love of the sport are coming to the harsh economic realization that we can no longer waste our time doing trivial things and still expect to pay the bills. I’m not sure when the final day will be but it’s coming soon. I’ve mentioned to several of the most senior members on the site and some have expressed interest in taking over. I don’t know how that would work though. I have contacted my web host about getting out of the remainder of my contract and we are in the process of working something out. This is a sad day. One I hoped would never come. This site has been my labor of love, my baby, from day 1. I’d like to thank all the members who have helped make it what it was. I appreciate your efforts. If there are articles you need to download or forum threads you want to print out please do it soon as I won’t be keeping any of the site online. I’ll try to give at least a couple days notice on the exact closing date of the site.
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Mike Young
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